Nature center shots from today (Image heavy)

No raptors around today, but some black caps, a woodpecker or two, mallards, and a whole horde of deer outside the preserve by the rock fountain.

Downy
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Black Cap Chickadee
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Squirrel
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Mallards
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And horde of deer...
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This yearling is so cute!
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Standing on the frozen part of the fountain. He fell through earlier when I was there (hence the wet legs). Apparently didn't learn his lesson about thin ice.
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This one kept bolting around and jumping in the air!
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And sadly, what tends to be the end result of deer overpopulation :(. It didn't look like it had been dead all too long.

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SUPER Cara! Did you get a new lens? These look very sharp!

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Originally Posted by SARtech

SUPER Cara! Did you get a new lens? These look very sharp!

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I broke down and bought the Canon 300mm f/4L IS. Just came to the conclusion I couldn't live without it :). Most of these were taken with that.

I've also got a couple of rental lenses with me (till they go back Friday), the Canon 70-200mm f/4 L IS (now on my list), and the 24-105mm f/4 L IS (now very very very high on my list... probably will be my next lens, though it'll be awhile before I can get it).

After renting good lenses, I came to understand how much difference a good quality lens makes.

ahhh... no wonder! :D
The lens I want is WAY out of my price range. I'm just going to have to be happy with what I have....somehow. :(

Certainly got to grips with your new lens pretty quick Cara. Even with a 300 you must still have got quite close to these fine animals . Was it just high spirits or was something making the deer run around like that ?

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Originally Posted by SARtech

ahhh... no wonder! :D
The lens I want is WAY out of my price range. I'm just going to have to be happy with what I have....somehow. :(

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What are you eying? :)

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Originally Posted by hminx

Certainly got to grips with your new lens pretty quick Cara. Even with a 300 you must still have got quite close to these fine animals . Was it just high spirits or was something making the deer run around like that ?

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I was pretty close to most of them, though some of these are cropped in (the deer running around are mostly crops... since there was a picnic table in most of the shots I wanted to get rid of)... The nice thing about city deer is they're pretty tame around people. The ones in the preserve are even more tame than these guys that hang around outside of it. The yearlings especially just walk right up to you.

I think it was just playing, but don't know for sure. It was running in circles, not running away, so I lean towards just playing around. The rest of the herd looked quite annoyed :)

Very nice series. We can sure tell that you have been out braving the cold a lot this winter - it's more than just the lens that has improved big time. I really like the composition with the female Mallard going into the V of the ice and the 'environmental' of the deer browsing on its hind legs. Thanks for posting all your photos - very enjoyable. – TF

Very day of images!